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eMOLT Weekly Update 2023-01-27
Weekly Recap
My apologies for a few weeks with no update. The last few weeks have
been busy with preparations for the Cooperative Research Summits and the
biogeochemical network workshop at WHOI. On that front, a big thank you
to all of the eMOLT participants who made the effort to come down to
WHOI and attend for one or more days. Thanks especially to those who
were willing to sit in front of a room full of scientists and tech nerds
and answer questions about their fishing operations and experiences out
on the water. eMOLT was well represented in the room thanks to
- Tony Alvernaz (F/V Chatham and F/V Kathryn Marie)
- Jim Barclay (F/V Lina Rose)
- Dave Casoni (F/V Margaret M)
- Doug Feeney (F/V Noah)
- Jim Ford (F/V Lisa Ann III - retired)
- Rob Jarmol (F/V Christy and F/V Christi Caroline)
- Mike Marchetti (F/V Mister G)
- Dave Marsh (F/V Grace Sarah)
- Rob Martin (F/V Resolve)
- Marc Palombo (F/V Terri Ann)
- Rodman Sykes (F/V Virginia Marise)
- Stephen Welch (F/V Mystic - retired)
There were a handful of industry members from other programs as well,
including the CFRF Shelf Research Fleet and NEFSC Study Fleet, and we
even had some West Coast fisheries representation from the Alaska
Trollers Association and science representation with Linus
Stoltz from the F.I.S.H. Project joining us to
share his work with the dungeness crab fleet off Oregon. Our close
collaborators from Ocean Data Network and Lowell Instruments were in the
room and online too, along with many of their colleagues in the
instrument manufacturing and tech spaces.
Overall, the general consensus seems to be that the meeting was time
well spent. Some preliminary notes:
- Huanxin and I have been discussing ways that we might start to
implement additional sensor calibration and testing into our dock visits
to rise to the bar set by some of the oceanographers in the room.
- There were great talks from people who put eMOLT data to use.
John Wilkin at Rutgers explained how eMOLT data are
incorporated into his ocean forecasting model to improve model
performance. He also took it a step further to say that the US Coast
Guard uses his forecasts to help inform their Search and Rescue
operations. So, all of you who are out on the water collecting data are
also helping make marine search and rescue more efficient in the
Northeast!

Figure 1 - model performance of the DOPPIO, Mercator, and GOFS
models across three different metrics. Lighter colors indicate better
performance. The (a) DOPPIO column is the only column that includes
eMOLT data, and is the best performer. The (d) NA Doppio column is the
same model without the eMOLT data.
We also heard from Yong Chen at SUNY Stony Brook
who has explored incorporating eMOLT data into stock assessments through
habitat suitability indices and using environmental metrics to inform
assumptions about fish biology such as growth rates, reproductive
output, etc.
Conversations with industry members, CFRF, ODN, Lowell
Instruments, and the NEFSC Study Fleet staff have sparked some interest
in thinking up new designs for the hardware and software that you see on
your vessels. Getting CFRF, NEFSC Study Fleet, and eMOLT on similar
hardware should reduce the electronic clutter for people who participate
in multiple programs and make it easier for us to get someone dockside
to help troubleshoot if something goes wrong.
Non-realtime update
Pete Begley (Little Bay Lobsters) mailed in his two non-realtime
probes the other week week with year-round data from both (164 and 183
fathoms) Gulf of Maine. As seen in the case of the deeper site in the
plot below, it was a relatively warm year and ended in being the warmest
December of all the years they have deployed at these locations. The
interesting thing about these deep sites is the lack of a seasonal
cycle. 
Figure 2 - 21 year bottom temperature time series from Pete
Begley
Realtime Summary (Vessels with Rockblock Satellite
Transmitters)
This week, we received 12 haul-averaged reports from 3 vessels.
Figure 3 - eMOLT Satellite Transmitter status
plot for the previous week.
In the figure above, you can see the approximate locations where we
received “Status Reports” (a ping from your system letting us know that
it’s still working) and “Data Uploads” (actual temperature / depth data
collected by your probes). The “Status Reports” come in every 12 hours
or so when a system is powered up. “Data Uploads” only come in when you
haul the probes. If you were out fishing and don’t see your approximate
locations on here, please reach out because there may be a problem with
your system.
On the topic of problems with systems, Huanxin and I visited Newport
and Point Judith to troubleshoot issues on a few different vessels. The
Lowell MATP temperature depth sensors that have been the workhorse
sensor of the realtime program seem to be reaching their end of life. We
just replaced the sensor on the F/V Virginia Marise this week. If you
have a MATP probe and the data you see don’t make sense, please let us
know. A common symptom of the ones we’ve replaced recently is that the
depth reading is stuck at a very shallow value.

Figure 4 - Lowell MATP-2W loggers
Miniboat news
The Waterford CT High School’s R/V Neil Armstrong-deployed
sensor-laden miniboat “Lady Lance” has been at sea for a few months.
After revolving around a Gulf Stream Ring several times last month as
shown in the animation below, it is now rotating around another ring as
animated by the teacher here

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